A federal appeals court has allowed a Southwest Atlanta family to continue pursuing constitutional claims against the FBI agent who led a 2017 raid on their home, which agents entered by mistake. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the agent qualified immunity in a ruling issued Wednesday. The judges said a jury could determine that the raid violated the family’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. The operation targeted the home of Trina Martin, her 7-year-old son and Toi Cliatt, while FBI agents were executing a warrant for a house on a different street. Court records say agents forced open the front door, deployed a flash-bang grenade and held the occupants at gunpoint before realizing they had entered the wrong home. Martin and her family sued the federal government and the agent who led the raid, alleging negligence and constitutional violations. Their attorneys have argued that agents failed to verify the address. They also alleged that the agent blamed the error on his GPS device, then discarded it and failed to preserve potential evidence. The appeals court did not allow the family’s claims against the federal government to proceed under the Federal Tort Claims Act, citing existing legal precedent. But the panel criticized that precedent and urged the full 11th Circuit to reconsider it, describing the law governing such cases as problematic. “Our fight for justice is far from over, but this decision is another solid step forward,” Martin said in a statement. “The raid on our home was a life-threatening mistake, it never should have happened, and the government needs to be held accountable.” The dispute has been in court for years and previously reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which revived the family’s case and sent it back to a lower court for reconsideration. The latest ruling means the claims against the lead agent can continue, while the family’s effort to hold the federal government liable remains constrained by the existing precedent.